


Regardless, I'll Complete You

by SereneSorrow



Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M, UraIchi Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24455002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: Gifting Ichigo with the reiatsu of dozens of other soul reapers isn't the only way to restore his powers, Kisuke pursues a more personal option. It's the least hecando for, and the most he willallowhimself to do to, his former student.Or:A Stitch in Time Saves Nine. I have no idea what that means, but a Stitch in Soul Saves One!
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke
Comments: 8
Kudos: 452
Collections: UraIchi Week 2020





	Regardless, I'll Complete You

**Author's Note:**

> UraIchi Week 2020 – Day 6: Soulscape  
> UraIchi Week 2020 – Day 6: Zanpakutou
> 
> Somehow editing this for typos added like 600 words... I don't know how that happened! :D

Kisuke stared at Ichigo, knowing that his former student couldn't see him even if his back wasn't turned to Kisuke at the moment. It was now or never, and there was no point in waiting for even a second more, he just couldn't get past his irrational nervousness. He'd calculated everything perfectly, run the numbers over and over until his head spun just to make sure that there were no flaws in his plan. Looking down at the thin black blade filled with several carefully selected and measured samples of reiatsu from Ichigo's family and the Vizards who were his zanpakutō spirit's nearest 'kin', Kisuke tightened his grip on the blade and reaffirmed his resolve.

It had been two years since he'd last seen his student in person, and in that time he knew that things had changed, Ichigo had changed. Perhaps this was no longer what Ichigo wanted, maybe he had finally managed to move on from everything and everyone, it was possible that Kisuke was intruding now where he wasn't welcome but the look on Ichigo's face after he'd collapsed from the strain of the final Getsuga Tenshō wouldn't erase itself from Kisuke's memory. Isshin had already regained his own zanpakutō and replenished his reiryoku reserves but with Ichigo's hybrid heritage his soul was far more damaged by the desperate move than his father's had been and Kisuke couldn't stand the guilt of his responsibility in this matter.

That's it, that's all it was, it had nothing at all to do with the inappropriate flirtations that had cropped up between him and his student from time to time. Nothing at all would make Kisuke admit that he'd gotten attached at the flattering attention of the virile young man just coming into his own under Kisuke's training. He noticed that none of the Vizard's received the same attention despite Shinji and Lisa's leers and Rose's own sensual mannerisms. Ichigo's eye was never drawn by Yoruichi's bare skin, quite the opposite. No, Kisuke wasn't going to remark on any of that, he may have a perverted mind but he knew where to draw the line. The son of an old comrade whose life he had literally held in his hands and toyed with (both of them actually, father and son) was definitely somewhere over that line.

So Kisuke shook off his hesitation, buried all thoughts of what couldn't be, and raised the sword. He struck quickly, one clean thrust straight in through the back of Ichigo's Soul Sleep, and the reiatsu in the blade flared blindingly bright as it went to work. Around them, the riverbank was empty and no one saw Ichigo slump forward, gasping and clutching at his chest. Kisuke didn't let himself be distracted by Ichigo's distress, he couldn't afford to stop this process midway, and there had never been any question of warning him it was coming. His grip on the blade, two handed and with his right wrist wrapped in tight straps that were tied to the hilt, tightened harder and Kisuke felt the expected lurch and drag of his soul being forcibly dragged deeper. The world around him lost coherency, and Kisuke fell to his knees behind his student, unknowingly pushing the blade deeper and resting his full weight against the hunched body below him.

Kisuke blinked, taking in the world around him as he caught himself quickly in midair before he could fall through the empty sky. He was standing in the middle of a dreary city, but strangely every skyscraper was on it's side, reaching for the sky that was currently on Kisuke's left and sprouting from an ocean to his right. Most of the buildings had cracked and grimy windows, and the city seemed to stretch on forever in each direction. Kisuke breathed a deep sigh as he looked at the grey clouds racing upwards (sideways?) in front of him, and then he lept to the nearest building. It was time to get to work.

He painstakingly searched every window of the building he stood on, starting at the top floor and working his way down to the waterline, eventually taking a chance and stepping into the ocean. He could still breathe, thankfully, and it was here that he finally had a stroke of luck. There was a wisp of white fabric floating in the depths not far from his current location, and Kisuke struck out toward it quickly, snatching it up in one hand and feeling the flicker of hollow reiatsu that had become familiar to him as Ichigo's own inner hollow's reiatsu. That was the first piece, found. Kisuke focused intently on the scrap and re-familiarized himself with the hollow's signature, eyes drifting closed as he did so. Already, he could feel another piece, and he turned blindly in its direction. There were others, and Kisuke started toward them, eyes opening only to watch for any obstacles in his path.

Hands snatching up every piece of the hollow that he could reach, Kisuke was surprised to find a scrap of brownish black cloth floating almost intertwined with a thin strip of white. Kisuke collected that one too, and felt another familiar reiatsu, one that felt far more like Ichigo than the hollow. Surprised, Kisuke paused for a moment to study the second piece, tangling his own senses into the fabric. It _was_ separate from the hollow, and Kisuke blinked down at the scrap, realizing that he was holding pieces of two distinctly different spirits. Thinking over the implications of Ichigo having two zanpakutō spirits for a moment and modifying all of his carefully crafted calculations as best as he could in his head, Kisuke came to the conclusion that he would have to press on no matter how this changed things. He sighed, a stream of bubbles fluttering through the water for some reason, before pulling out the neatly folded bag he'd brought to collect all the pieces. He was hesitant to mix the two, but if he needed to collect as much of this other spirit as he did the hollow then he couldn't just carry them in his hands.

Following one and then the other trace of reiatsu, Kisuke worked tirelessly to find every single piece of both zanpakutō spirits, never wavering even when he came to the scraps of flesh and strings of muscle. The spirits had been shredded but retained the apparent forms they had taken, and Kisuke was relieved to see that both were humanoid because he had only been able to study the anatomy of so many creatures in preparation for this. He hadn't ever asked what Ichigo's spirits looked like, zanpakutō spirits were a private mater, and even during Ichigo's Bankai training Yoruichi had made herself scarce so other than the male voice that Yoruichi had reported Kisuke hadn't known what to expect. Luckily two human or mostly human figures should be well within his abilities.

White hair, black hair, a cracked visor. Two cracked skulls in several pieces, one's bones the size of an adult male and the other's of a younger man still growing up. The younger skull seemed to have to bumps or ridges that looked like they might have sprouted into horns, if the younger was the hollow as he guessed then perhaps... but no, they didn't look like they had been horns just that they might have grown under other circumstances. Kisuke wouldn't trick himself into looking for pieces that didn't exist, he would continue following the fading traces of reiatsu to the pieces that _did_ exist.

The bones were easier to find than the organs, and surprisingly the older spirit seemed to be missing it's appendix while the younger didn't and even had some unidentifiable extra organ that held more hollow reiatsu than most of the other pieces did. A curiosity that Kisuke didn't have time to study, though he itched to. He found every piece he searched for here in the water, and with a sigh of relief Kisuke headed out of the water and up the side of one of the skyscrapers, back toward the dimly lit sky.

There was more room out here, the pieces he'd spent hours collecting wouldn't float away from him, and Hime wouldn't punish him for getting her dress wet. Kisuke wanted to take a break, but there was only so long the power of his prototype blade would last and he needed to finish this before he was thrust out of Ichigo's soulscape with the last of the blade's power. Setting the bulging bag of spirit parts on a window free of cracks, Kisuke drew his blade and gathered himself once again, allowing only precisely the amount of reiatsu he needed to fuel his blade as he called his Shikai. He had to take a moment to breathe at the strange sense of using his own zanpakutō here in another's soulscape. He felt like an intruder, foreign and unwelcome regardless of his intentions.

“Get it together.” He told himself, his voice hoarse after the endless work he'd pushed himself to complete. “Keep working.”

Determination reinforced, Kisuke called his Bankai. “Kannonbiraki Benihime Aratame!” He shouted to the empty city, watching as Benihime's Bankai form took shape.

Her feet shattered several of the windows beneath her weight and she knelt instead, eyes peering down at him and the parts still gathered in front of him. Carefully, Kisuke opened the bag and poured what he'd collected onto the windows between them. As soon as they were all revealed, Benihime stretched out her fingers toward them, already well aware of the plan and what she needed to do. Kisuke watched carefully as red threads latched onto first one and then dozens of black scraps, seeking out bones and organs next and carefully picking through to sort hollow from not. Kisuke bit his lip as the skeleton hung like a mannequin, and then was filled with organs and laced with muscle. The stitches looked like healed breaks and fractures in the bones, and along the organs they looked like any surgical scars, the red of the muscle hid the laces even though they would turn black after Benihime had finished. It was the skin that gave Kisuke pause, the threads laced so many small scraps together, most of them were barely the size of his hand and the stitches would leave the spirit with the appearance of a particularly lopsided quilt stretched over their body. It was an easy price to pay but it would be an obvious mark of what Ichigo's soul had endured and it made Kisuke anxious.

With a start, Kisuke gaped at the spirit as his face was stitched together and his hair replaced. Yhwach, the Quincy who had lead a war two hundred years ago. Kisuke had only just begun his work for the Shihoin Clan, the precursor to his tenure in Onmitsukidō, when the war had taken place but he recognized the greatest enemy of the Gotei. This spirit was so similar in appearance beneath the stitches that there was no mistake. Kiuske felt deeper with his own reiatsu as Benihime stitched the last of the man's clothing and replaced his visor over his closed eyes, probing the spirit, and he inhaled sharply at the confirmation that the zanpakutō spirit was in fact a scrap of the Quincy king's soul.

Kisuke was aware of Yhwach's apparent ability to distribute portions of his soul, but he hadn't thought that it would coalesce like this. Despite the clear proof that the spirit was a Quincy it was also undeniably a zanpakutō spirit, and Kisuke didn't know what to think. He didn't have time to think, because the spirit's eyes slid open under stitched eyelids that fluttered as though the spirit was struggling to regain consciousness. Kisuke held his breath as he watched, the spirit still hanging from a half-dozen threads though the stitching was done. Kisuke was certain that after the surprise of two zanpakutō spirits, Benihime had chosen to restore the one that _wasn't_ a hollow first because they couldn't be sure of a hollow spirit's reaction to reawakening, but Kisuke worried about what kind of reaction the Quincy would have now.

Finally, the spirit's eyes opened fully, color dimly visible through the visor and pupils focused ahead. He blinked slowly as he seemed to orient himself, and then his eyes drifted over Kisuke with the long-suffering blank expression of one who was unflappable even through the most shocking of circumstances. His head turned hesitantly to take in Benihime and the threads connecting them, and he nodded to her in a clear sign of appreciation for her efforts, polite enough (non-violent enough) for her to release him. The man slouched a bit as Benihime lowered his feet to the building, but when the threads fell away he collapsed to his hands and knees ungracefully. He didn't make a sound, but struggled back to his feet on his own. Kisuke hesitated, feeling that he should help but unsure of touching Ichigo's Quincy spirit without permission. When the man made it back to his feet, Kisuke noticed a faint breeze stirring the spirit's hair and coat for a moment before the air went still again.

“Urahara Kisuke.” The Quincy said with a voice that grated roughly.

His vocal chords must have been in several pieces before he was repaired, but the rough quality should even out before too long, Benihime wouldn't settle for less than perfect when she had all of the pieces she needed.

“Yhwach?” Kisuke asked, unsure despite his certainty.

The man shook his head slowly, still getting used to being able to move at all.

“I have never used that name.” The man said. “You intend to repair him as well?” With only a glance the man indicated the white scraps still spread out between them.

“Well, yes. I wasn't expecting two spirits, but my intention was to restore Ichigo's soul as fully as possible.” Kisuke wondered if the Quincy would protest to the hollow's repair.

“Good. Proceed.” The Quincy insisted gruffly, watching with dull but intent eyes.

Kisuke blinked, surprised by not just the easy agreement but the clear sense of the man's intent to insist Kisuke do so if he had said no. He supposed that he _shouldn't_ be surprised that Ichigo's spirits were every bit as unorthodox as he was. Kisuke nodded to him and then Benihime, and she reached for the paler bones that still littered the window.

Kisuke's anxiety returned to the forefront of his mind, and it was a feeling that persisted as the second spirit was likewise raised like a doll and laced together, the stitching lacing up his bones before drawing his musculature tight. He couldn't help worrying about any consequences of failure, having not known that there were two spirits Kisuke hadn't planned for this much (twice as much) use of his Bankai within Ichigo's soulscape and he couldn't be sure that there wouldn't be some kind of aftereffect. He was pouring far too much of his own reiatsu, at the greatest concentration of its strength, directly into Ichigo's soul. The blade he had crafted to bring him here would allow his own presence (still mostly contained in the perceived physical form of his 'body') to pass nearly unnoticed by Ichigo's soul but with Ichigo's reiryoku reserves still nearly nonexistent this much exposure to the heavy weight of Kisuke's own reiatsu could stress Ichigo's soul to a dangerous degree. Kisuke's mind shied away from performing the several calculations that came to mind of how Ichigo's soul could collapse under the strain.

Instead he drew his attention back to the sight before him. The stitches were even clearer on the pale white bone that shone somehow more starkly white than the other spirit's skeleton. The skin of the second spirit came together slowly and the blood red stitches stood out on the skin in sharp contrast to the pale albino white. Kisuke hadn't realized as he gathered the pieces, but the skin was so pale that it and the fabric were nearly the same shade of white. Hollows were usually dark colors, black, purple and green. The Arrancars of Aizen's army had mostly been pale, but none so snow white as Ichigo's hollow spirit. Kisuke watched as the stitches closed the skin over the hollow's stomach and chest, running up his neck and pulling the pieces of his face into place. Stitches ran straight up through the middle of both of his lips, and a large triangle was outlined over the right cheek and eye, it was the largest single piece of his face with the rest made of a patchwork that was particularly gnarled on the left side near the outside corner of the left eye. The triangle was the first hint that drew Kisuke's attention to study the angles of the hollow's face, something familiar prodding at his thoughts until he realized that the hollow looked exactly as Ichigo had two years ago. He would have been a perfect mirror of Ichigo, the only thing different was the color of his form, most notably his skin and hair.

Kisuke took a shuddering breath, his heart beating painfully at the sight of Ichigo torn into so many pieces. He couldn't help seeing orange hair in place of the white for a moment, but he shook it off as he realized just why exactly Ichigo had struggled so much in his training to control his hollow. At the time, when he was only just beginning to truly feel guilty (to allow himself to _feel_ the guilt) for manipulating Ichigo into participating in all of his plans, Kisuke had stepped back from his training. He had decided to hand over the care of Ichigo's development to Shinji so as to allow the Vizards to show him how they controlled their own hollowfied zanpakutō spirits, but Ichigo had seemed to take the training to heart in an odd way, brooding over what he was learning in a manner different from usual. Kisuke hadn't pried, but of course it made sense now that Ichigo had struggled with the 'monster' when it looked exactly like himself. How could he not be concerned with the power that lurked inside him when it wore his face? Kisuke already struggled with his own darkness, and Benihime looked nothing at all like him physically. He couldn't even imagine how he would have reacted if there had been a pale reflection of himself within his own soulscape screaming for blood.

With the last stitches in place along the hilt wrap of the blade form of Zangetsu, the hollow's eyes opened every bit as slowly as the Quincy spirit's own attempt. When he managed it at last his black-and-gold eyes flew wide at once and locked onto Kisuke where he was standing in the most direct line of sight. With a sharp inhale the hollow twitched violently and reached for the blade over his shoulder, but before even Benihime could react to paralyze the spirit still hanging from her threads, the Quincy lept into action and snatched the blade away and the hollow's hand met empty air. This drew the hollow's attention though, and he slumped in Benihime's hold as he caught sight of the other spirit.

“Quincy.” The hollow's voice was a screech that made Kisuke wince, and he wondered if Benihime had made a mistake, but no she wouldn't have.

_'Was his voice really always like that?'_ Kisuke wondered as Benihime reluctantly released him.

Surprisingly, when the hollow stumbled the Quincy caught him, though the hollow made a show of not appreciating the assistance. Kisuke couldn't believe what he was seeing, but he supposed that the spirits would have to work together for Ichigo if nothing else. It would be an incredible case for study, but Kisuke's work was done, and he had no other reasons for being within Ichigo's soulscape.

“We are grateful for your assistance, but now you need to leave.” The Quincy said in an echo of Kisuke's own thoughts.

“Yeah, get you and yer' princess the Hell _out!_ ” The hollow screached teritorily, leaning toward Kisuke as though he would like to attack though the Quincy held him back as much as he kept the hollow spirit standing.

Nodding in agreement Kisuke took one last glance between the two spirits that appeared healthy and synchronized with each other, and then cast his gaze over what he could see of the landscape and its still in danger of crumbling buildings, and forced down his desire to stay and repair anything else that he could. There was no more time and he had already intruded more than enough here. Kisuke quickly released both his Bankai and Shikai to re-sheathe his zanpakutō before he was thrust forcefully out of Ichigo's inner world, the effect of his experiment easily dispelled now as its power waned.

Coming back to himself, Kisuke found that he had somehow draped himself over Ichigo's back. He pulled away, sliding the now inert blade out of Ichigo's Soul Sleep to the sound of Ichigo gasping and choking as it drew through his soul. He twisted his right hand out of the bindings on the blade as Ichigo collapsed backwards, and Kisuke struggled to catch him as he tried to sort out his own awkward position of half-kneeling on the sloping riverbank. Ichigo's back collided with his chest and Kisuke dropped his cane to catch his shoulders and steady him.

“Ichigo, breathe.” Kisuke tried, hoping that the raw coughing he was hearing wasn't proof of a flaw in his calculations.  
Shaking against him, hands still digging at the uniform shirt over his chest, Ichigo's eyes were rolling back in his head but the cough was settling down. It was still a harrowing moment and Kisuke was relieved when Ichigo's eyes finally locked onto his own face and stared up at him in shock as he took slow, deep breaths.

“Urahara?” Ichigo asked with a wealth of confusion, hands still covering his chest where the blade would have protruded, though there was no evidence that it had ever been there at all.

“Yes, you can see me. I'm not in a gigai.” Kisuke explained to his student's yet still growing expression of shock.

“I can see you... again? You... what did you do?” Ichigo stuttered out, still trying to keep his breathing calm.

“I repaired your zanpakutō spirits. I have to say, I wasn't expecting two, but luckily the sword was strong enough to hold out for the time I needed.” Kisuke explained.

“Sword?” Ichigo looked confused, the shock fading but still lingering at the edges, his eyes still too wide to be calm.

Ichigo wasn't following well, or maybe Kisuke wasn't explaining himself well. To be fair, Kisuke had been under a lot of pressure to do this right, because he was sure that if it didn't work on the first try it wasn't likely to work at all. Even if he could convince the people, whose reiatsu he'd needed to make this happen, to allow him close enough to them in order to siphon off portions of their reiatsu again it wasn't likely he could escape without questions. The first time he had done it all under the false pretenses and every time he recalculated his plans there was a lower and lower chance of success. He would still have to actually try again, and there were only so many attempts he could make before he destroyed Ichigo himself in his desperate desire to repair the damage he had caused.

“This sword, I had to invent a blade that would allow me to enter your soulscape, it is similar to the manner in which your own zanpakutō was able to infuse the Tenshintai when you learned your Bankai.” Kisuke explained, helping Ichigo when he struggled to turn around on his knees and look at the blade laying discarded in the grass beside them.

“You went into my soulscape and fixed my spirits?” Ichigo asked faintly, his hands now tightened to fists against Kisuke's thighs.

Kisuke couldn't really get past the contact, and realized that his own hands were still on Ichigo's shoulders, but that was just to keep the still unsteady young man from falling over of course. He forced himself to pay attention to his student's question though, Ichigo deserved all the answers he wanted after two years of avoidance.

“Yes, the older man with the visor and the white one who looks like you. They're as close to whole again as I can make them. There's a superficial difference and I don't know how it might have effected their abilities or your own, but you will be able to see for yourself with a bit of meditation and-” Kisuke's words were cut off abruptly.

Ichigo nearly threw himself forward and slammed his mouth over Kisuke's, shoving his tongue into Kisuke's open mouth and kissing him in a sloppy, desperate way. Kisuke's eyes widened in surprise as Ichigo's hands held his head in place while he explored Kisuke's mouth. Kisuke wasn't a saint, he kissed his student back almost immediately, too shocked to do otherwise. Kisuke tightened his grip on the fabric over Ichigo's shoulders to keep his hands from wandering, he could control himself that much at least, though he might not be able to for much longer. Ichigo sucked on his tongue and bit at his lip lightly, and he didn't let Kisuke go until he had to if he wanted to breathe. He pressed their foreheads together as he sucked in a huge breath. Kisuke had lost his hat at some point, and Ichigo had an unobstructed view as he stared into Kisuke's eyes, deep brown meeting grey with a wealth of desperate emotion.

“Oh God, _thank you._ ” Ichigo gasped.

**Author's Note:**

> I have NO plans to continue this, but I did have this tiny thought while I was still working out how the ending should go:
> 
> “Ichigo, you don't have to do something like this just because you feel indebted to me for restoring your powers.” Kisuke insisted.
> 
> “Oh Hell, Kisuke. Everyone disappeared, _everyone_ stopped talking to me. You expect me _not_ to to care more about the one person who came back?”


End file.
